Sunday, June 15, 2014

This last weekend I headed down to Lawrence, KS to make my first appearance at Ironman 70.3 Kansas. I have sent athletes to this race for the last 4 seasons, but I had never personally made the trip. 2014 was the year.

I knew I was due for a good hit out and since this was the first "rested" race of the year I was optimistic against a very strong field. I made the 9hr + drive on Friday and stayed with good friend, Jessica Jacobs and her family. A huge thank you for their hospitality and allowing me to stay with them at Ft. Leavenworth.

The "Good"

The swim was good. It wasn't great, it was terrible, it was about what I would expect for how I felt. I backed the volume off a bit too much in the last 4 days and I think it was the reason I was a little bit flat. I rocked the Vendetta Sleeveless to avoid overheating and came out about 90sec back of the usual front pack... unfortunately, this race had some of the world's best long course triathlon swimmers in it, so I found myself over 3minutes back from those guys.

The "Great"

I hurried through transition, anxious to get going. I had worked hard on the bike and wanted to ride well. This was my main goal for the day besides finishing well.

The ride went great. I spent a lot of the day trying to break a group of about 5 guys who collected about 200-300m behind me. They would catch me on the hills and I would gap them everywhere else. Finally at about mile 35 their elastic broke and they spread out a bit more.

I caught 4th place at about mile 54 and rolled into transition in 4th, just about 3minutes back of third. The ride was a good one. I don't have power for the first 4 miles, but know that the NP for the ride was between 310 and 315w at 71.9kg's (159.0lb). So just under 4.4w/kg. I need to do a few things better to gain some free speed, but things are going great on the bike right now.

The "Cramps"

Ride a bit too hot and a lot of times you end up fighting cramps, which is exactly what happened. I ran with cramps for 2 miles and fell to 7th. I then had a stretch of 4 miles where I ran well and held the gaps. Then cramps started to creep back in about mile 9 and I fell one more spot to 8th.

I finished 8th in 4:02. This is a finish I am pretty happy with. I finally rode close to my potential on the day, stayed engaged throughout the race and saw some fruit from my intense bike labor over the last few months.

Next up is some recovery, Ironman 70.3 Muncie, Challenge Albany and then the focus for the season, Ironman Wisconsin.